


Anyone Else (but you)

by allthewayto_thevery_end



Category: Harry Styles (Musician), One Direction (Band), Zayn (musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Pining, gigi and anne are just mentioned for now but anyways, it's actually a pretty straight forward story I would say
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-07-28 01:41:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16231598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthewayto_thevery_end/pseuds/allthewayto_thevery_end
Summary: "If anyone was to ask Harry about it, he would say everything started as a great idea, uni was at times harder than expected, and being able to have sex with someone very hot while also not having to worry about being in a relationship was the best idea he ever had, or so he thought.His friends though thought it was the worst idea he had ever had".Or the university AU where Zayn and Harry are Friends With Benefits.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was for the tumblr prompt: "Can you write something with Zarry being FWB but Harry confessing to Zayn that he accidentally in love with him?"
> 
> And well, I made it an uni AU with a bit of pining and actually divided it in short chapters just for my sake. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

If anyone was to ask Harry about it, he would say everything started as a great idea, uni was at times harder than expected, and being able to have sex with someone very hot while also not having to worry about being in a relationship was the best idea he ever had, or so he thought.

His friends though thought it was the worst idea he had ever had.  
Liam sat him down and listed all the stories where having a friend with benefits never worked "it's just gonna fuck your friendship, and it's gonna be awkward for the rest of us", he told him.  
Niall, laughed a lot when Harry told him his idea, but after laughing he also commented it was a bad idea "is not Zayn, I'm sure he can have all the sex buddies he wants. But you get attached easily".  
"I don't", Harry answered pouting, "I haven't even had a long lasting relationship... Never".  
"I know that", Niall said laughing again looking at Harry's pout, "but is not just like that... All the girls and boys you've ever dated or had one night stands with are still your friends because you keep them close, you just don't know how to let it be".  
"You talk as if you were the biggest expert on friends with benefits", Harry said frowning.  
Niall shrugged, "what can I say? I like sex and I have lots of friends".  
Harry made a shocked face "you never told me!", he said offended, "we are best friends! We live together! I thought you told me your stuff".  
Niall laughed again, "I don't tell you because is not a big deal, I don't have to make an announcement of it, which proves my point with you".  
Harry looked at Niall with a serious expression "well... Is not like I can now tell Zayn I regret it, so, I have to make it work".  
"You could tell him you changed your mind, I don't think he would be surprised... You are a bit eccentric".  
"I AM NOT... And anyway what if he gets offended cause he thinks I actually don't fancy him".  
Niall's laugh filled the room again "that's even less probable, everyone knows you think Zayn is hot... I wouldn't be surprised if your mum knew it".  
In that moment Harry at least had the decency of looking ashamed, "maybe... Maybe she knows".  
Niall laughed even harder and like Harry still looked serious Niall pocked him in the face where his dimple usually was until Harry was also laughing.

"I still don't understand why you agreed to be Harry's fuck buddy" Louis told Zayn for the fifth time.  
"Can't you just let it be? We were drunk and he said very convincing things".  
"Really? I like Harold a lot, but he isn't a very convincing person when he is sober, much less when he is drunk".  
"Well. He _was_ convincing".  
"You know what I think, Zed? Do you want to know what I think?"  
"I guess you are going to tell me anyway".   
Louis stood up in front of Zayn and pointed a finger at him as if he was a detective about to declare the identity of the murderer, "I think he _looked_ convincing".  
Zayn rolled his eyes "whatever".  
"Not whatever... I think he looked convincing and you never have been able to resist a pretty face..."  
Zayn rolled his eyes again "what do you want me to tell you? It didn't sound like a bad idea then... Actually is probably a good idea. I've had this two long ass relationships almost back to back. Maybe I wanted something that didn't mean anything for a change".  
Louis sat next to Zayn and put his hand over his arm "that's like the less you thing you have ever said... And that includes saying yes to this stupid idea".  
"Maybe being very me has been stressful relationship wise lately... And who knows, maybe Harry won't even remember about it sober".  
Louis made an agreeing noise and decided to let it go (for now).

Zayn and Louis, and Harry and Niall lived in very different parts of campus, and normally they met up at Liam's dorm cause it was big and right at a middle point between the others, but Liam had loads of work and didn't want them interrupting him. So, they didn't see eachother until Saturday night at a party thrown near Harry and Niall's dorm. Zayn always liked to arrive early (cool early though) because he could pick where he wanted to hang out, which normally was a corner near a window from where he and Louis could smoke without problem, so when Harry arrived with Niall and Liam, they were already there. When Niall said that everyone knew Harry thought Zayn was hot he wasn't kidding, the thing is, Zayn was _hot_. The kind of hot that makes you stop and stare with your mouth wide open (or that was what happened to Harry the first time he saw Zayn), and then you sort of got used to it as time passed. But it still hit Harry sometimes how amazing Zayn looked. When they got into the party they didn't even have to look around a lot to find them, they grabbed some beers, mingled through the people, but soon they all were next to Zayn and Louis.  
Louis put his arm around Liam's shoulders "Payno! I've missed you! I feel like I haven't see you in years".  
"It's been literally a week", Liam answered laughing.  
Niall sat right between Louis and Zayn and Liam was stuck next to Louis that wouldn't let him leave his side because annoying Liam was Louis' favourite hobby.   
So, Harry was left to sit next to Zayn.

The other thing about arriving early to parties was that you got drunk before the others, and it's not like Zayn was drunk, he could hold his alcohol pretty well, but he was exactly on the fun side of tipsy, which was for Zayn a light-hearted state where he stopped overthinking everything before doing it, so when Harry just stood there looking nervous in a very unHarry way, Zayn grabbed his wrist and pulled so he was finally sitting next to him.  
Harry went willingly and smiled to Zayn "hey. I wanted to text you during the week", Harry said.  
"Yeah?" Zayn answered noncommittally.  
"Yeah. About the thing we talked about? Like last time we saw eachother?"  
"Yeah" Zayn said this time looking a bit confused at Harry.  
"Yeah" Harry said again bitting his lip "I just, I didn't know if... Or if maybe you..."  
"I actually thought it was a good idea", Zayn cut him off before he continued struggling with his words.  
"Really?" Harry asked watching Zayn with his eyes wide open.  
"Yes, I'm sure I told you so when you told me".  
"Well... Yes... But I don't know. We were drunk so I thought you might have changed your mind".  
"I mean", Zayn said smiling, "you made a very compelling case. Sex is good, right? And no strings attached... Whenever we want to stop we just stop and go back to just friends. It works perfectly for me cause I really don't want a relationship right now... If I remember correctly we even kissed to seal the deal".  
"We did, yes", Harry answered this time losing the nervousness and smirking a bit "do you need a reminder?"  
"I wouldn't m-" but before Zayn could finish speaking, Harry was already kissing him, cause that Harry knew how to do, kissing was his thing, so Harry kissed Zayn deeply and with intent, he tasted the beer and the smoke out of Zayn and somehow ended up sitting in his lap for better access and Zayn, he wasn't just an spectator, he gave back as good as he had into the kiss until breathing was hard and Harry actually pulled back, but even then Zayn was ready to just keep kissing except that Harry turned his head away which made Zayn remember that there was a world outside of Harry's mouth and saw Louis shaking his head and then heard Harry "did you just throw something at my head?"  
Harry moved so his body was fully turned away from Zayn even if he still was more on top of him than not.  
"Yes, I did" Louis said while grabbing a coaster from the table and throwing it at Harry.  
Harry batted it away before it hit him and looked at Louis "what do you need?"  
"Attention, obviously", Louis said making Niall laugh.  
Harry rolled his eyes and sat properly like at the begining, but closer to Zayn than he was before, he tried to look sideways at Zayn to see his reaction, but Zayn still looked pretty relaxed and seemed to find the whole scene funny, and yes, Harry thought, it probably was funny, even though he would have liked keep kissing Zayn more than paying attention to Louis, which probably made him a bad friend.

"Now that I have your attention", Louis said giving a scolding look to Harry and Zayn, "what do you think if this year we go to the italian mountains for New Year's? Eleanor's friend owns some cabins and they are not gonna use them this year, so they could rent them to us. I think there's a big end of year celebration in town and a lot of people goes there".  
Harry's interest had peaked now since he loved the holidays they had every year "that sounds amazing!" He said excitedly.  
"Really" Louis asked, "I thought you were going to be harder to convince since you always want to go to beaches especially if here is winter".   
Harry stuck his tongue out and then said "I like hanging out with you anywhere, and Italy is always cool even if is the bloody freezing mountains".  
"And Italian food is great" Niall said, "it's impossible to say no to Italy".  
"I know the place", Zayn said, "I have never been, but Gigi's parents have a cabin there and Gigi always said it was amazing, she wanted to go last year", Harry's heart did a weird movement when Zayn mentioned his ex girlfriend which wasn't ok, and he needed to have a good talk with himself about it.  
"Then, it's decided?" Louis asked, everyone agreed, "then we will make the arrangements, also, the cabins are really big, so you can bring people or whatever, Eleanor's gonna invite some of her friends and all that.  
"I love Eleanor's friends!" Harry said.  
"And they love you", Louis said making a face, "I think they only like me when you are around".  
"That's because you are mean" Harry said "if you were nice -like me- everyone would like you".  
"They only like you cause they don't have to see you often and they don't really know you", Louis answered quickly.  
"You see?", Harry said touching his chest as if he had been mortaly wounded "extremely mean".  
Everyone laughed, while Niall, always one to know when things were scalating, launched himself into an story about something weird that happened to him during the week after class. Harry was really into Niall's story until he felt Zayn's arm around his shoulders heavy and hot, he peeked again trying to look at Zayn without him noticing, Zayn was looking at Niall, all relaxed and with a smile that made him look even more hot if that was possible.

Harry sighed, maybe his great idea wasn't so great after all.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took waaay longer than expected, I'm so sorry!

After a month Harry had finally convinced himself (again) about how having Zayn as his friend with benefits was an amazing idea. There was an adjustment period, but having sex with Zayn was about the best thing that had happened to Harry probably ever, and they were really taking advantage of the situation, there was no need of small talk or having to go out on dates, it was like just having fun and sex whenever they had time.

Harry was on the floor lying on his yoga mat with his eyes closed, when he felt someone basically kicking him on the side, not hard, but it wasn't nice either. He opened just an eye to unsurprisingly see Louis there.  
"What are you doing?" Louis asked.  
"Yoga" Harry said as if it was obvious.  
"You are _not_ , you were basically just sleeping there".  
"I was meditating".  
Harry heard then Niall's laugh "you have been 'meditating' for like an hour, mate".  
And okay, maybe Harry was sleeping, but... "that's just deep meditation", he said smiling and finally sitting up.  
Then he frowned because everyone was there, Niall and Liam sitting on the couch with Zayn and then Louis standing next to Harry.  
"How long have you all been here?" Harry asked.  
"Like 30 minutes?" Zayn answered looking at Harry and smiling, that smile where his eyes got crinkly and Harry had to look away because it was still a lot.

"So, what's up" Harry asked.  
"Halloween!" Liam said happily.  
"It isn't Halloween", Harry said, because he had been a bit distracted lately, but he had an exam on Halloween and he had just started to study, so he knew it wasn't Halloween.  
"I know, but there's gonna be a party in a club in the city! It's gonna be amazing!"  
Harry frowned and said "I have an exam that day".  
"Even better!" Louis said, "you can celebrate failing".  
Harry rolled his eyes, "I know you are joking, but it's probably gonna be true, so I think I'm gonna pass this time".  
"Harry Styles passing on going dancing?" Niall asked, "it sounds like an alternate reality".  
Harry shrugged "growing up sucks", everyone agreed.  
"We are going to watch a movie, that's why Louis woke you up", Zayn said still smiling.  
"And we didn't want your snoring interrupting us" Louis added.  
Harry glared at Louis, "what are we watching?"  
"Iron Man", Liam answered.  
"Again?", Harry asked.  
"Niall hasn't seen all the marvel films and we decided to start from the beginning".  
"I'm sure he has watched Iron Man" Harry said but sat on the couch next to Zayn.  
When the movie was starting Zayn put his arm around Harry and whispered "you can sleep, I know you've been stressed, I'll make sure Louis doesn't kick you when you snore".  
"No, I'm ok, I like the movie", Harry whispered back, but cuddled closer to Zayn and laid his head on his shoulder, because, well, it was there.  
"Liar", Zayn said, but started petting his head.

Harry woke up hours later alone on the couch with a blanket on top of him.

 

Regularly clubs weren't Zayn scene, but it was fine once or twice a year and wearing a costume was always fun, even if he had been lazy and had gone for a "prince" style with a crown and an outfit provided by Harry, he was having fun even if he hated dancing, but the girl he was with was cute and funny and even if he wasn't interested it was flattering to have her undivided attention.

 

Harry actually didn't fail his exam, so he was in a celebratory mood when he settled down for the night on his couch with a bottle of wine and a movie that the guys were never going to want to watch with him, he drank the bottle while watching the movie which by the end he was glad they didn't watch because it was boring and he wouldn't have heard the end of it if he hadconvinced Louis of watching it and went a little tipsy to the kitchen to see if he had more wine.  
Failing at finding wine, he started scrolling through Instagram, everyone was at that club so he felt like he was there too just looking at the pics, until he noticed that on a lot of pics Zayn appeared with a blonde girl, chatting and dancing, sometimes on pics with their friends and other times on the background.  
So, Harry went to his room and looked for his Elton John in Madison Square Garden costume that he had wore to some party before, put it on and went to the club. Halfway there Harry was kicking himself because he couldn’t believe he was jealous when he had no right to be jealous and that made him change all his plans.

Harry arrived to the club, thankfully had no problem getting in and went straight to the bar, so it looked like he had been there for a while, he drank two shots of tequila to get rid both of the cold and the nerves and looked around.

Zayn saw Harry chatting with a guy at the bar, which was, well, weird because he said he wasn't coming. When their eyes met Harry smiled, said something to the guy he was with and then started walking towards Zayn.  
"Hey babe", Zayn said when Harry was finally in front of him.  
"Hey" Harry said.  
"I thought you were going to have a quiet night in".  
"Yeah, well", Harry shrugged, "got bored".  
"Have you been here a while?" Zayn asked.  
"Yeah", Harry said, "was looking for you, actually... Let's dance".  
"Yeah, but I should warn you that I’m a really bad dancer", Zayn turned around and right behind him was the girl whit whom Harry had seen him in the pictures.

"Hi again" she said, "wanted to see if you felt like dancing again"  
"Oh! We were just going to dance" Zayn said and flashed her a smile "wanna come?"  
"Yeah" she said without even glancing at Harry.  
Zayn turned a bit to see Harry and said "she is Abby, El's friend", then looking at her said "this is Harry, my friend".  
"Hi" Abby said to Harry while still looking at Zayn. Harry sighed, he should've stayed home.

They went to the dancefloor and started dancing, it wasn't like, Harry didn't really think Zayn was interested in Abby, but he could tell she was very interested, not like he blamed her, honestly. At that point anyway Harry decided he was being ridiculous (Harry had _really_ decided that half way to the club but there was nothing to be done about that) and started to enjoy dancing even if Zayn was dancing more with Abby than with him. The guy that had approached him at the bar was there too and started dancing really close to Harry, which was fine, Harry liked the attention and it was a welcome distraction, when the guy started being closer to Harry's side and looked like was going to say something he suddenly felt someone tugging his arm, he looked back and it was Zayn that had stopped dancing and was looking at him, and then had his hand on his neck to pull him down and was kissing him.

Harry's head short circuited a bit, but then turned to Zayn and put his arms around his waist to pull him closer and just like that they were kissing and dancing and Harry felt like he was on fire and like he and Zayn were the only people on the dancefloor.

Then Zayn pulled away and Harry had to ask "what was that for?"  
Zayn shrugged, "you still looked bored".

Abby was looking at them and this time she was also looking at Harry with a hint of interest, so, before she proposed a threesome or something like that that sounded like it could be a good idea but Harry really wasn't in the mood for (he was probably never going to be in the mood for that with Zayn), he took Zayn's hand and dragged him to the bathroom and into a stall before kissing him again and rolling his hips against Zayn's, then Harry dropped on his knees while trying to open Zayn's trousers.

"Harry...", Zayn said, "you don't have to... The floor is not clean" and tried to pull him up, but Harry shook his head, while managed to open Zayn's trousers.  
Harry let a breath out and looked at Zayn "can I?"  
"Of course".  
So, in just one movement Harry took Zayn's already hard dick out of his pants and without preambles wrapped his mouth around him, Harry already knew what Zayn liked and how to make him moan so it wasn't really hard to make him come with Harry's name on his lips.

 

After that night Harry really thought he had hit some sort of rock bottom, like, he really went out in the middle of the night just because he got jealous of some pics where a guy, he wasn't even in a relationship with was just hanging with a girl. He knew the right thing to do was stop the whole thing. But that was easier said than done, mostly because Harry didn't really want to stop, and by the look of it Zayn hadn't caught up on anything.  
They kept doing their thing, and school was so busy that Harry didn't have too much time to really think about it, they started to meet almost every day and they would just send a texts if they were too busy to meet.

Zayn knocked on Harry's door around 5 pm and waited for a while. December had arrived with a lot of cold, so Zayn was jumping a bit to keep warm. Normally Harry opened soon, so Zayn took his phone out to see if he didn't have a text, he hadn't seen Harry since Thursday because both had been busy, but they had agreed on meeting on Tuesday. Zayn was considering if he should call Harry, when the door opened.

Harry was there and when he saw Zayn his eyes opened in surprise and said "fuck, Zayn, I forgot to text you". Harry sighed and moved so Zayn could get in.  
"Babe, I don't want to criticise you, but you look like shit", Zayn said with a little smile.  
Harry sat in a chair and let his head fall a bit hard on the table "I'm so busy. I have to finish this for tomorrow at 8 and I'm really behind. I'm sorry I made you come all the way here".  
Zayn walked behind Harry and put his hands on his shoulders massaging him a bit "it's ok. It's nice to see you anyway". Zayn felt Harry tensing so he rubbed his back a bit more and then said "go back to work".  
Harry straightened up and sighed. Zayn smiled and then said "I can stay, just to keep you company while you work… If that’s ok?".  
Harry looked at Zayn intensely for a second and then slowly said "sure, if you want".

Zayn sat on the couch and took a book from his backpack to read.  
It was a really good book so Zayn got really into it while hearing Harry work. When he looked at the time almost 3 hours had gone by, he looked at Harry who was still typing and stood up.  
Zayn put his hand on Harry's shoulder "babe".  
Harry made a noise showing Zayn that he had heard him.  
"You need to eat something, you ain't gonna finish any sooner if you starve".  
Harry sighed and turned to look at Zayn, "yeah, you are right".  
Zayn smiled and said "let me fix something up, yeah?" And gave Harry a peck on the lips.

When Zayn moved to the kitchen Harry sighed again, he had been able to ignore the fact that Zayn was there because he was trying so hard to finish his work, but how could he ignore Zayn when he was being so sweet, they had never been like that before, and yes, they were friends, but they were never that kind of friends and this felt domestic in a way that Harry had no idea how to handle.

After eating something together Zayn let Harry go back to work while he cleaned up the mess he had made and plopped down on the couch again to read some more, at some point he should have fallen sleep because he woke up hours later at 4 am to see Harry sleeping in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.  
Zayn stood up, "Harry" he said while shaking him a bit so he'd wake up. Harry opened his eyes while sitting upright.  
"Did you finish your homework?"  
Then probably understanding what was happening he smiled and said "yeah" and then looked at the clock "I must have fallen sleep 10 minutes ago", and then he yawned, "I have to be in class at 9".  
Zayn nodded and said "then go to sleep, yeah?" Then looked back, while biting his lip nervously, "I'll sleep in the couch. It's a bit late to go back home".

This time Harry rolled his eyes and stood up, "come on", Harry said, "bed", then yawned again while grabbing Zayn's hand and guiding him to his room, which wasn't like Zayn didn't already know it. Harry took out sweatpants and a shirt from his closet and gave them to Zayn, who put them on while Harry made sure the lights outside were turned off, Harry then set his alarm and went to bed.  
Zayn slid into bed and Harry turned off the light. Then Harry turned to face Zayn and said "thank you for staying... and making me eat... it meant a lot".  
Zayn smiled and moved Harry's hair that was on his face, then shrugged "it was nothing".  
Harry smiled too and snuggled closer to Zayn, "I cuddle", he said.  
"I know", Zayn said in a voice that Harry could have described as fond and then they were asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all liked it!  
> I'm pretty aware about the fact that my writing could do with some improvement, but I truly hope you can get past that.
> 
> Next chapter (which might be the last one ??? ) will be up shortly because I really hope I can finish this before december.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment!  
> xx

**Author's Note:**

> Also, you can come to my tumblr [here](https://iknowimnotyouronly.tumblr.com/) to talk and maybe give me more prompts even if I take them slowly.
> 
> x


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